Michael Rogers Oldfield Thomas (February 21, 1858 – June 16, 1929) was a British zoologist. Thomas worked at the Natural History Museum on mammals, describing about 2,000 new species and sub-species for the first time. He was appointed to the Museum Secretary's office in 1876, transferring to the Zoological Department in 1878. In 1891 Thomas married an heiress to a small fortune, which gave him the finances to hire mammal collectors and present their specimens to the museum. In 1896 when William Henry Flower took control of the Department he hired Richard Lydekker to rearrange the exhibitions,[1] allowing Thomas to concentrate on these new specimens.[2], [3] He committed suicide in 1929, aged 71, shortly after the death of his wife.
References
- ^ The Natural History Museum at South Kensington, William T. Stearn ISBN 0-434-73600-7
- ^ Thomas Oldfield, Catalogue of the Marsupialia and Monotremata in the Collection of the British Museum (Natural History) Dept of Zoology (1888), Taylor and Francis, London Catalogue of the Marsupialia... full text retrieved 3/21/2007
- ^ Oldfield Thomas F. R. S., The History of the Collections Contained in the Natural History Departments of the British Museum Vol. II, Separate Historical accounts of the Historical Collections included in the Department of Zoology, I. Mammals,(1906) William Clowes and Sons Ltd. London. retrieved 3/21/2007The History of the Collections..." full text
